Saddam Hussain Captured in Tikrit

[Waqqas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3317429.stm
Saddam Hussein 'arrested in Iraq'


Saddam Hussein has been the subject of intensive search operations
Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been captured by US forces in Iraq, the coalition says.
He was found hiding in a cellar in his ancestral hometown of Tikrit, Iraqi official Ahmed Chalabi said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has welcomed the news saying it "removes the shadow" from over Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is the most wanted man on the list issued by US authorities but has not been seen since Baghdad fell to US forces in April.

Intensive search

A spokeswoman for US-led coalition forces in Baghdad said that a "very important" announcement would be made at a news conference at 1200 GMT but would not give further details.

Saddam Hussein has been the subject of intensive searches by US-led forces in Iraq but previous attempts to locate him have proved unsuccessful.

People have started celebrating the possible capture of their former president in the streets of Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The former Iraqi leader was last seen in television footage shot in April at a Baghdad market just before the city fell to US forces in the recent Iraq conflict.

US authorities have offered a $25m reward for information leading to his capture.

On 22 July his sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed in a raid by US forces in the northern city of Mosul.

Intelligence

In October, US officials said they had intelligence indicating Saddam Hussein was hiding in Tikrit.

They said he seemed to be moving around various safe houses with the aid of family members, often in disguise.

Saddam Hussein was born in Tikrit and has a tight network of family and clan ties which permeated all of the regime's main military, security and political institutions while he was in power.

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says it is not clear how US forces will verify that the identity of the man they reportedly have in custody is Saddam Hussein and not one of his doubles.

[Gaf]

Interesting, given the intensity of media reports, it seems like they have finally caught him.... The question is WHAT are they going to do with him now ???? More importantly, what will happen to the resistance in Iraq against American occupation ????

[Rafaqat]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gaf Interesting, given the intensity of media reports, it seems like they have finally caught him.... The question is WHAT are they going to do with him now ???? More importantly, what will happen to the resistance in Iraq against American occupation ????

Every one speculated that the resistance is from the minority loyal to saddam hussain. Now we will know if its a popular resistance or truly end of an era. In an ideal scenario, saddam's arrest would be totally irrelevant and resistance to carry on its strength. Then Yanks will be in a deep hole.

Rafaqat

[Gaf]

Exactly!! For once.. we agree ;)

[Waqqas]

I think the attacks on the occupation forces will increase because many of those Iraqis who were against the US/UK occupation of their country but were not doing anything against it lest a withdrawal of the occupation forces bring Saddam back into power will now feel free to pick up their guns and start putting the occupation forces out of their misery.

[Gulstan]

It was interesting to see SH had no means of communcating with any organised resistance. This would indicate to an extent the freedom struggle has a momentum of its own. As Waqqas has said, it is currently percieved as a "Saddam loyalist" struggle, now with his capture it may will draw upon a wider appeal amongst the Iraqis who are opposed to the American occuppation adn increase in intensity, esepcially if the yansk and its iraqi assets devise a consitituion which limits the electrol power of the Shia's

[Shoaib]

I agree waqqas, another thing which will be interesting to follow is what they'll do with him now ... a closed trial would be stupid, as it will create an impression that they need to hide something, and an open trial will , well ... give Saddam an open mic to the world ... if questioned about the mass graves he might tell a tale or two which places the US and UK in a bad light ... I think they made a big "boo boo" by capturing him alive ... but as far as boosting chances of Bush winning the elections next year I guess it was a perfect timing ..

[Gul Khan]

Poor Indians lost their ally .....

[TahirN]

I did see some old footage on bbc news 24 of Indira Ghandi wiping the carpet whilst Saddam was walking down from the airplane. I thought it was quite pathetic and wondered what else she did to please Saddam ;)

[TahirN]

How Saddam could embarrass the West

by Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

A trial of Saddam Hussein would primarily bring forth evidence of his crimes, but he might also use the forum to remind the world that he once had his supporters outside Iraq - in the former Soviet Union, in the Gulf States and in the West.

The trial might turn into more than an account of genocide, invasion, murder and massacre, dominant though that would be.
It could become a political event tinged with some embarrassment for countries and individuals who were once close to him.

Saddam Hussein's egocentric sense of history, largely centred around a vision of himself leading the Arab world as Saladin led it against the Crusaders, would surely tempt him to play to the gallery of Arab opinion.

In the process, he might raise the question as to why those who later opposed him once supplied him with technical, military and diplomatic muscle.

Two current Western leaders in particular might find their names in the frame - the French President Jacques Chirac and the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

But before considering their role, it is important to remember that Saddam Hussein's main supplier was the Soviet Union. He was sent its best equipment - Mig 29s, T 72 tanks, artillery, gunboats and Scud missiles.

And he did not pay for it all. Russia, the Soviet Union's successor state, is still owed billions of dollars.

French role

France, however, was also a major supplier. When he was prime minister in 1974, Jacques Chirac went to Baghdad to see Saddam Hussein, then the power in Iraq, though not yet the president.

The following year, Saddam Hussein went to France and Prime Minister Chirac showed him round a nuclear plant.

They negotiated the sale to Iraq of two French nuclear reactors. One of them was destroyed in an air raid by the Israelis in 1981 amid fears that Iraq was developing a nuclear weapon.

France also agreed to provide Iraq with 133 Mirage F1 jet fighters over a 10-year period. It is reckoned that during the 1980s, 40% of France's arms exports went to Iraq.

'My dear friend'

In 1987, a French paper published a letter written to Saddam Hussein by Jacques Chirac a few months previously. It began: " My dear friend."

It refers obliquely to "the negotiation which you know about" and to the "co-operation launched more than 12 years ago under our personal joint initiative, in this capital district for the sovereignty, independence and security of your country."

The French president has since said that, at the time, many governments supported Iraq in its war against Iran

Mr Chirac denied that the "negotiation" meant a discussion about repairing Iraq's nuclear reactors.
The French president has since said that, at the time, many governments supported Iraq in its war against Iran and that Iraq was seen as "progressive".

Indeed many other Western countries - including the United States, Britain, West Germany and Italy - also helped Iraq with equipment and expertise, both civilian and military, and with finance.

Iraq's Arab neighbours in the Gulf, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia among them saw revolutionary Iran as a threat and poured money into Baghdad.

US diplomacy

The role played by the United States turned out to be important diplomatically. And this is where Mr Rumsfeld came in.

In the early 1980s, the bogeyman for the Americans was Ayatollah Khomeini. He had come to power in Iran during the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The United States had been humiliated by the seizure of its embassy and the holding of its staff as hostages for more than a year. This helped Jimmy Carter lose the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

With Iran seen as the danger, Washington turned to Iraq as the bulwark.

Iraq had invaded Iran in 1980 but the Iranians had held the advance and were striking back with human wave attacks. Iraq was known, by 1983, to have used chemical weapons to stop these.

A US State Department memorandum in 1983 stated: "We have recently received additional information confirming Iraqi use of chemical weapons."

President Reagan determined nevertheless that Iraq should be supported and he sent Mr Rumsfeld to Baghdad with a personal letter from himself to Saddam Hussein.

Mr Rumsfeld had been defence secretary under President Ford and was then head of a private pharmaceutical company.

Minutes of their meeting in December 1983 were taken by an American diplomat and later released in edited form under the Freedom of Information Act. They were published by the National Security Archive, a private research group.

Iran the motive

It is clear from the account that Mr Rumsfeld was concerned about Iran and that this was the motive for the American approach.

Saddam Hussein showed obvious pleasure with the president's letter and Rumsfeld's visit US State Dept memo The minutes state: "Rumsfeld told Saddam that the US and Iraq shared interests in preventing Iranian and Syrian expansion." There is a lot of talk about stopping Iranian oil exports.

The report also sums up Saddam Hussein's reaction: "Saddam Hussein showed obvious pleasure with the President's letter and Rumsfeld's visit."

There is no mention of Mr Rumsfeld having raised the issue of chemical weapons with Saddam Hussein, though he said he did in an interview with CNN in 2002.

A report on another meeting, recorded that he did raise it with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, saying that "our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that make it difficult for us, citing the use of chemical weapons".

Diplomatic relations between the US and Iraq were restored in 1984.

Past alliances often embarrass governments.

If Saddam Hussein chooses to do so, he could use them to embarrass some of his current enemies.

Real point of trial

Not that it would diminish his own responsibilities. The London based organisation Indict, which has gathered evidence against Saddam Hussein and his associates, has published one eyewitness account of the dictator's personal behaviour.

It is a reminder of what the trial will really be about:

"One of the president's bodyguards brought 30 prisoners out. They were Kurds. The president himself shot them one after another with a Browning pistol.

"Another 30 prisoners were brought and the process was repeated. Saddam Hussein was laughing and obviously enjoying himself. There was blood everywhere - it was like an abattoir...

"Those who were still alive were eventually finished off by the security officers."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...st/3324053.stm

[H Khan]

By MATTIAS KAREN
.c The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Tuesday it's becoming ``increasingly clear'' that Saddam Hussein's regime did not have any weapons of mass destruction.

Blix, who announced the members of a new Stockholm-based independent commission on weapons of mass destruction, said he didn't think Saddam's capture would result in the discovery of any such weapons in Iraq.

``My guess is that there are no weapons of mass destruction left,'' said Blix, who headed the team of U.N. inspectors that searched Iraq for more than three months before the war without making any significant finds. ``I think many of the things that were said (about Iraq having them) were not sufficiently well-based.''

Blix said he thought most of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were destroyed in 1991.

When his inspection teams found a crate of warheads in January, he said they asked themselves ``whether this was the tip of an iceberg, or was it just an ice floe floating around'' as a remnant.

``I think it's getting safer and safer to say that it was just an ice floe,'' Blix said.

The international commission was established this year in Stockholm and aims to provide a new impetus for international efforts to curtail - or stop - the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Blix is head of the body. The former Swedish foreign minister led the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981-97 and retired from the United Nations in June.

The body, which was proposed by U.N. Undersecretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala in 2002, is the first international commission focused on weapons of mass destruction since the Tokyo Forum in 1999.

``My ambition for this commission is that we will be able to provide realistic and constructive ideas and proposals aimed at the greatest possible reduction of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction,'' Blix said.

Blix added that the group plans to analyze the amount of nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons, as well as the means to deliver them, but won't do any actual inspections. It will meet two to three times a year to discuss its findings.

Areas of concern included the Korean peninsula, Iran, tensions between India and Pakistan, as well as terrorism, he said.

The commission will present a final report on its findings, along with concrete ideas and proposals for how to battle the spreading of weapons of mass destruction, around the end of 2005. The first report, which is expected at the end of next year, will be delivered to the United Nations, he said.

The commission's headquarters will be in Stockholm. Sweden contributed nearly $1.8 million to the body, but will have no say in its course of work.

The commission includes William J. Perry, who was defense secretary in the Clinton administration.



12/16/03 16:26 EST

[SyedA]

Israel Had Plot to Kill Saddam Hussein
http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/p/ap135.gif Tue Dec 16, 3:55 PM ET




By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - The revelation that Israel plotted to kill Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) at the funeral of a beloved uncle resolved an enduring mystery and infuriated current military chiefs who worry loose talk is harming Israel's security.

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...2003_ny442.jpg
AP Photo
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...ans_gaz104.jpg
AP Photo http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/auctions/cam.gifSlideshow: Mideast Conflict


"Operation Bramble Bush," the plot to assassinate Saddam with a missile attack, was shelved in 1992 after five elite commandos were killed training for the mission.



Rumors had circulated for years that the training accident was linked to plans to kill Saddam, but military censors suppressed publication until Tuesday, three days after U.S. forces captured the former dictator.



Israeli security officials were furious about the revelation.



"There are things that are best left unsaid for security reasons, and should not be told to the whole world in an irresponsible fashion," military chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said.



Israeli newspapers published details of the plot Tuesday, and officials involved in the planning — including the intelligence officer who tracked Saddam — spoke about it for the first time in radio and television interviews.



The Israeli plot was born after Iraq (news - web sites) fired 39 Scud missiles at the Jewish state in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). Bowing to U.S. pressure, the military did not retaliate, and officials believed killing Saddam would restore Israel's damaged credibility.



Israel also felt killing Saddam would reduce the risk of further missile attacks, said Danny Yatom, a former top aide to Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites). As prime minister in 1992, Rabin oversaw the later stages of the assassination plot.



Nadav Zeevi, an Israeli intelligence officer at the time, told Israel Army Radio on Tuesday he was asked in the spring of 1992 to gather information on Saddam and propose a time and place for attack. Zeevi said he knew Saddam would be a tough target because he moved often and was known to send doubles to appearances.



"We felt we needed something that was emotionally so important to him that he would attend personally," Zeevi said.



Zeevi said he learned that Saddam's maternal uncle and father-in-law, Khairallah Tulfah, was dying of diabetes, having lost both legs to the disease. Officials hatched a plan to kill Saddam when he attended what Israel believed would be Tulfah's impending funeral.



On Oct. 2, 1992, Zeevi brought the idea to Rabin and senior military officials. Rabin gave the go-ahead to continue intelligence gathering and to practice for an attack, Zeevi said.



The job was given to Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit that had carried out other daring operations, including the 1976 raid that freed Israeli hostages from a hijacked plane in Entebbe, Uganda.



The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said commandos would be flown into Iraq and split into two groups. The advance unit would head to the Saddam family cemetery outside Tikrit, and a second group would deploy eight miles away.



The front unit would watch the funeral from 150 yards away, and signal to the soldiers further back to fire a barrage of missiles on Saddam, Yediot reporter Ronen Bergman said. The custom-made missiles were named "Obelisk," the Maariv daily said.



After the assassination, the commandos were to be flown out of Iraq on an plane that would take off from a temporary airfield.



Zeevi said he had proposed something more modest — perhaps remote-controlled bombs that would be detonated as Saddam reached the cemetery.







"The generals, for their own reasons, pushed for more, for something with missiles and bang-bang and helicopters, something more like the Entebbe operation, something with a lot more action," Zeevi said.

On Nov. 5, 1992, the commandos staged a dress rehearsal in the Negev Desert. "It was basically a show for the generals," Zeevi said.

Ehud Barak (news - web sites), then army chief and later prime minister, was present along with other top military brass.

As part of the exercise, commandos were to fire a dummy missile at soldiers playing the roles of Saddam and his bodyguards. A live missile was used by mistake, and five soldiers were killed. Six were wounded.

For years, Barak was hounded by allegations — later proven false — that he fled, leaving behind wounded soldiers.

The plan to kill Saddam was shelved after the accident. Maariv said Saddam attended his uncle's funeral as predicted.